Configure Google Ad Grants in 10 minutes (+ AI advanced features)

Google Ad Grants provides nonprofits with $10,000 per month in free advertising. However, many organizations don’t maximize this opportunity because they lack time, expertise, or resources. AI is changing this landscape.

AI opens many opportunities to save time and multiply the results of Google Ad Grants accounts.

Human knowledge and creativity are still key, but many tasks that used to take hours can be completed now in a few minutes thanks to AI. Also, AI can help us automate repetitive tasks, freeing up our time to focus on strategy.

Imagine effortlessly managing your Google Ad Grant, generating compelling ad copy, finding the perfect keywords, and optimizing your campaigns with the help of a AI assistant available 24/7.

To make it more practical and actionable, this guide is divided in 2 main sections:

1. Basic AI setup: Configure a DSA campaign in 10 minutes. Achieve decent results with almost no work or knowledge required.
2. Advanced AI tools: In case you want to optimize your campaigns as much as possible and have more control. We mention here the main AI tools available in Google Ads, in ordered following the most common steps of campaign creation and optimization (strategy, keyword research, ad creation, etc.).

Basic AI setup

DSA campaigns are the fastest way to give visibility to all the content on your organization’s website.

DSA comes from “Dynamic Search Ads”. This Google Ads feature use AI to determine which pages to promote and which titles to use in the ads for each page, to achieve your desired results (usually more conversions). It also learns from the ongoing results and show more frequently the pages that are working better.

You can use it to promote hundreds of pages. And you just have to configure 1 very simple ad (2 lines of text). It can’t be easier and quicker.

They are especially interesting for organizations that have a very active blog or just a website with many pages about many different topics.

In less than 10 minutes you can have a DSA campaign launched, which can bring you thousands of visitors each month if your website has content that many people search for on Google.

4.3.1. Steps to launch a DSA campaign

1) Create a normal search campaign

2) Create an ad group, selecting the type “Dynamic” instead of “Standard”

3) Select which pages of your website you want to include in the DSA campaign

Sometimes Google will let you choose certain topics or sections of your website. Other times you can only select specific pages (indicating their URLs) or choose “All webpages”.

To start, we recommend selecting “All webpages” (unless you are only interested in promoting certain pages on your website or already spending almost all of your Ad Grants budget).

Another option is to create different DSA ad groups for different sections (for example, one for all URLs that begin with “/blog”, another for all that begin with “/programs”…). This should give better results than one DSA group for all your website (because it allows you to customize ads for each topic/section), but it is also more work and may not make much of a difference (titles are what matters most and that is not manually configured in DSA ads).

4) Create one or more dynamic ads

You only have to fill in 2 lines of text (Description 1 and Description 2). The rest is filled in automatically by Google Ads.

4.3.2. Recommendations for DSA campaigns

1. Keep in mind that the Descriptions of your DSA ads should probably be a bit generic, because they will be use to promote many different pages on your website for very different searches. For example, it might be a good idea to explain something about your organization or initiatives.
2. You can test different ads with different texts/approaches (we recommend creating at least 3 versions). Google will end up showing more frequently the ad that performs best.
3. When the campaign has been active for 1 or 2 months, it’s a good idea to check which pages are getting more visitors and check if those pages have good CTAs (attractive, persuasive, focused on your main goals…).
4. If a specific topic or page brings a lot of traffic, you should create a “normal” campaign dedicated to that topic. You can optimize a normal campaign much more (creating specific ads on that topic, adding new related keywords…) and probably increase the traffic and conversions it generates. You should use DSA campaigns to discover topics with potential and then create normal campaigns to make the most of those topics.
5. By default, DSA campaigns include the pages on your website that Google already has indexed for its search engine. But it may not have all your pages indexed, which can limit the results of your DSA campaigns. Therefore, you should check the indexing of your website. You can use Google Search Console or search on Google “site:yourweb.org” (replace with your domain) to see which pages it has indexed. If there are many pages missing, you should try to improve indexing (there are many guides on the subject: Google, Ahrefs…), which will also benefit you for SEO strategy. In the short term, perhaps use lists/feeds of URLs for DSA campaigns instead of indexed pages.
6. You must ensure that the correct language is being used in the configuration of the corresponding DSA campaign (the default language is not always the language we want to target in that specific campaign). If it’s configured incorrectly or you don’t have pages in that language, the DSA campaign will not give results (sometimes 0 impressions).

Advanced AI tools

DSA campaigns are great, but they are very automated. If you want more control and optimize your campaigns as much as possible, you should probably use also other AI features.

AI can help you with many Google Ads tasks, such as:

• Generate better ad copy instantly.
• Create big lists of great keywords faster than doing manual research.
• Optimize campaigns and increase results automatically with Smart Bidding and automated recommendations.
• Create high-converting landing pages with AI-driven design and content.
• Analyze performance efficiently using AI-generated insights.

Key Tools and AI Features

This guide explores a variety of AI tools, including:

• Google Ads’ Built-in AI Features: This includes Smart Bidding strategies, automated recommendations, Performance Max campaigns, and more.
• ChatGPT: A powerful language model for brainstorming, copywriting, campaign planning, and even generating code snippets.
• AI-Powered SEO Tools: We’ll explore options like Semrush and Ahrefs for advanced keyword research and competitive analysis.
• AI Image & Video Generation: Tools like DALL·E, Canva, and others will be covered to help you create engaging visuals for your ads and landing pages.
• AI-Powered Landing Page Builders: Platforms like Unbounce, Instapage, and Leadpages offer features like automated personalization and A/B testing.
• Google Analytics & Looker Studio AI Features: Utilize the AI capabilities already included in Google tools like Google Analytics and Looker Studio.

Strategic Campaign Planning with AI

AI tools like ChatGPT can help brainstorm effective campaign ideas based on your nonprofit’s mission.

• Brainstorm campaign ideas with ChatGPT: Define goals, target audiences, key messages, and potential keywords. Go beyond donation-focused campaigns. Consider campaigns focused on other valuable goals, such as recruiting volunteers, promoting events, building your email list, raising awareness for specific programs, or driving petition signatures.
• Configure conversions: AI can also help you set up proper conversion tracking. You can ask ChatGPT for conversion ideas (which online actions to track) and instructions (how to configure those in Google Analytics or Google Ads). Again, don’t limit your tracking to only donations. Track all actions that represent meaningful engagement, such as: Email sign-ups, volunteer applications, etc.

Campaign Setup and Targeting

AI can help optimize your bidding strategies, audience targeting, and overall campaign structure.

• Utilize Smart Bidding strategies: Google Ads’ Smart Bidding uses machine learning to automatically adjust your bids in real-time, aiming to maximize conversions within your budget. This is crucial for Ad Grants, as it helps you compete effectively in the auction and avoid the $2 CPC limit.
• Explore the AI-assisted campaign setup: Google Ads has introduced a new “conversational” campaign setup experience, which uses AI to guide you through the process. It’s designed to be a more user-friendly and fast way to configure new campaigns, which is great especially for those new to the platform. But some recommendations might not be good (weak copy, irrelevant keywords…) and you should probably add manually other elements (more keywords, maybe more ad groups or headline variants…).
• Leverage AI-driven audience targeting: Use automated remarketing lists, similar audiences, and interest-based targeting. Start with broader targeting and gradually refine it based on performance data (targeting small audiences + low-volume keywords is a common mistake for Google Ad Grants, it will limit too much your reach and overall results).
• Increase your target area: If your nonprofit’s mission extends beyond your primary country, consider expanding your Google Ad Grants campaigns to other relevant regions. AI makes international expansion easier by providing culturally-relevant translations of your ads and landing pages for different regions.

Keyword Research

You can leverage AI tools to identify and organize the most relevant and effective keywords for your Google Ad Grants campaigns.

• Generate comprehensive keyword lists with ChatGPT: AI can help you think beyond obvious and generic keywords. If you get a big list of those, you can get more search volume, better traffic quality and less competition. Identify informational, navigational, transactional, and long-tail keywords.
• Organize keywords into ad groups: Organizing your keywords into tightly themed ad groups is essential for good Quality Scores and campaign performance. AI can help you group keywords logically.
• Use AI-powered SEO tools for advanced research: While ChatGPT is excellent for initial brainstorming, dedicated SEO tools offer more complete and reliable data. Many SEO tools are incorporating more AI features to make the keyword process easier and faster, such as Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Gain advanced insights into keyword difficulty, search volume, and competitor strategies.

Ad Creation

You can use AI to generate copy, optimize assets, and explore different ad formats.

• Responsive Search Ads (RSAs): RSAs are the dominant ad format in Google Ad Grants. Instead of writing a single, static ad, you provide multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google’s AI automatically tests different combinations to find the best-performing variations.
• Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs): Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are another powerful AI-driven ad format. Instead of using keywords, DSAs use the content of your website to automatically generate ads and target relevant searches. DSAs are particularly useful for nonprofits with large websites.
• Performance Max: Performance Max is a new campaign type. It uses AI to serve different ad formats across all Google Ads platforms, but for Google Ad Grants only Google search is available.
• Automated Asset Creation: Google Ads offers built-in AI features to help you automatically generate ad assets (sitelinks, images, etc.). This can be helpful if you want to use different types of assets but don’t have time to set them up manually.
• Create compelling ad copy with ChatGPT: Overcome writer’s block and explore different messaging angles for ads and sitelinks.
• Create Images with AI Tools: Images are not very important for Google Ads Grants, since it doesn’t include “image/banner ads” (Display Network). But if you don’t have good images on your website or image library, it might be interesting to create a few images or illustrations very quickly using AI tools (Dall-E, Canva, Leonardo AI…).

Landing Page Optimization

A well-designed and optimized landing page is crucial for converting ad clicks into meaningful actions (donations, sign-ups, etc.). AI can significantly enhance this process.

• Utilize AI-powered landing page builders: Tools like Unbounce or Instapage are already incorporating AI to help you create high-converting landing pages (automated A/B testing, personalization, conversion intelligence…)
• Get AI-driven feedback on your landing pages: ChatGPT can act as a virtual landing page consultant, providing feedback and suggestions for improvement.
• Generate landing page copy: ChatGPT can assist in creating compelling landing page copy that resonates with your target audience and increases conversions.
• Use AI to create visuals and videos: Enhance your landing pages with attractive images or even videos (using platforms such as Synthesia, Pictory, etc.). Ensure they are high-quality, relevant, and consistent with your brand. Prioritize real photos and videos of your work and beneficiaries when possible. If you use realistic AI pictures, you might want to disclose clearly that they are AI-generated. 
• Create custom designs and code with AI tools for web developers: For more advanced customization, AI can assist with design and even code generation. Tools like V0.dev, Bolt.new, Cursor, Github Copilot…
• Get A/B Testing Ideas: A/B testing is crucial for continuously improving your landing page’s performance. Especially if you are generating many visits (A/B testing is usually not reliable with small volumes). ChatGPT can help you brainstorm testing ideas.

Monitoring and Optimization

AI can help you track your campaign performance, analyze the data, and discover insights to continuously optimize your Google Ad Grants campaigns for better results.

• Google Ads Automated Recommendations: Check those AI-powered suggestions to improve your campaigns, sometimes they are quite useful. But don’t blindly accept all recommendations; carefully consider each one and its potential impact on your campaigns. Some might have negative effects on your account.
• Google Analytics 4 (AI Features): GA4 incorporates several AI-powered features that can provide valuable insights into your website traffic and user behavior, such as predictive metrics, automated insights and data-driven attribution.
• AI tools for Data Analysis: You can use generic AI tools like ChatGPT and specific AI analytics tools like Powerdrill AI to gain deeper insights from your campaign data.

Advanced Tactics

Most nonprofits can get good results without having to use these advanced techniques. But you might want to explore them to automate more tasks or optimize results even further. 

• Google Ads Scripts: Scripts are snippets of JavaScript code that allow you to automate tasks and customize your campaigns in ways that aren’t possible through the standard interface. AI can be helpful in generating and debugging these scripts.
• API: For even more advanced automation, you can use Google Ads API (Application Programming Interface). It’s free for “normal” users, but requires custom programming. It could be quite complex to configure everything, meet Google’s requirements and maintain your custom API app.
• Third-Party Tools: You can also try third-party optimization tools designed for Google Ads (eg. Opteo, Optimizr, Adalysis…). They are designed for “normal” Google Ads accounts with commercial purposes, not with nonprofits or Google Ad Grants in mind. So be careful, because some of its features or automations might not be well adapted to the needs and requirements of an Ad Grants account.